Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Chronicles 2:17

"And Solomon numbered all the sojourners that were in the land of Israel, after the numbering wherewith David his father had numbered them; and they were found a hundred and fifty thousand and three thousand and six hundred." — 2 Chronicles 2:17 (ASV)

All the strangers. —The indigenous Canaanite population. (Compare the use of the term in Genesis 23:4; Exodus 22:21; Leviticus 17:8.)

After the numbering. —The word sĕphâr, “reckoning,” “census,” occurs here only in the Old Testament.

Wherewith David his father. —The former census of the native Canaanites, which had taken place by order of David, is briefly recorded in 1 Chronicles 22:2. (Compare 2 Samuel 20:24, and Adoram was over the levy, from which it appears that the subject population was liable to forced labour under David; compare also 1 Kings 4:6; 1 Kings 5:14; 1 Kings 12:4–18.)

And they were found. —The total of the numbers here given is 153,600, which is the sum of the figures assigned in the next verse, namely, 70,000 + 80,000 + 3,600.